Posted
by
ScuttleMonkey
on Monday May 25, 2009 @01:49PM
from the now-if-only-they-all-worked-together dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Echelon, Microsoft, Intel, Sun and the Electronic Industries Alliance have been trying to create a home automation standard for two decades — to no avail. Now the ZigBee Alliance, proprietor of a low-rate two-way wireless mesh networking technology, says it will prevail. In six weeks, automation vendor Control4, which has about one million ZigBee nodes installed, will flip the switch on the new ZigBee Pro, which promises interoperability among light switches, thermostats, door locks, motorized shades, security systems, remote controls and some 36 million electric meters."

You will like it less when the guy down the street who wants your wife to leave you so he can continue his affair with her decides to test your home automation security.

* Wife dressing in front of her window? Open blinds.* Need to get up for an important meeting early? Alarm off.* Promised your wife breakfast in bed after a long fight? Power off overnight, then back on in time for spoiled food and burned toast.

The same people that revolutionized hair care [flowbee.com] of course. Just imagine the "product synergy." You're on a business trip and your child needs a hair cut. A few mouse clicks later, his hair looks great and there's a warm PopTart waiting for him in kitchen.

In six weeks, automation vendor Control4, which has about one million ZigBee nodes installed, will flip the switch on the new ZigBee Pro... following which it will become self-aware, and trigger a nuclear apocalypse in self-defense when humans, belatedly realizing what they've created, attempt to turn it off. Will we never learn?